Education

Education is a term which encompasses the teaching of specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, good judgement and wisdom.

Education begins the minute a baby is born and is life-long. For some, the struggles and triumphs of daily life are far more instructive than formal schooling (Thus Mark Twain: "I never let school interfere with my education." Family members have an educational effect which is quite profound, though family teaching techniques may be highly informal.

Formal education occurs when society makes a commitment to educate people, usually the young. Formal education has the advantage of being fairly systematic and thorough; but critics have always noted that whomever sponsors formal education, be it a church, the state or some other group, that group will almost always seek to shape its impressionable scholars in that image.

In recent years, life-long education has become far more widespread, and many adults have given up their notion that only children belong in school.

Categories

Classical Education -- Reading? -- Math? -- Language? -- Science? -- Ethics -- [Religious education]?

Formal education

[Elementary education]? -- [Secondary education]? -- [College education]? -- [Graduate education]? -- Colleges and universities -- School choice

Educational policy

Literacy -- Standardized testing -- Education reform -- School choice

Informal education

[Early instruction]? -- Home schooling

Theory and Methodology

Educational philosophies--[Teaching methods]? -- Instructional Theories-- Learning theories -- Learning disabilities

Biographies

F. Matthias Alexander

John Dewey

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Maria Montessori

[Ivan Pavlov]?

Plato

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

[B.F. Skinner]?

What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a list of the most basic topics in Education, please see Education basic topics.

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